A rare provincial/federal infrastructure grant made available this year could mean upgrades for the proposed changeroom/washroom facility at Fisher Field.
During a public information session with town staff and the architect hired to design the building, residents were asked to make suggestions for two iterations of the building.
Option A is a $911,000 project including four change rooms, four washrooms (including one accessible), and a multi-purpose room to be used as a referee changeroom, first-aid station, and treatment room. The building would be un-heated and only available for seasonal use.
Option B is an approximately $1.4 million project including the same features as the first option, plus a community/assembly room, office space, storage space, and a concession area. The second option also proposes heating and insulating most of the building (except for the change rooms, concession, and storage area) so it can be used year-round.
The town's Community Infrastructure Fund grant application is due in November.
Dean Collver, director of parks, recreation, and culture, said the Fisher Field project is the closest the town has to a shovel ready project that fits the criteria established for the grant.
The grant is for a capital project in the recreation and culture stream.
Collver said the plan for Option A fits the budget first assigned to the project ($911,000), and would meet the short and medium-term needs of the community, but a grant would allow the town to increase the size and scope of the project for longer-term needs.
“We would like to be able to consider the building needs in a 25 to 30-year window,” said Collver. “It would be nice to go back to council with a bigger envelope and with something to meet long-term needs.”
He said it’s rare to see capital project funding from the upper levels of government now, so now that a grant is available he wants to see the town try to take advantage of it.
During the public open house held last evening from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Collingwood Public Library, residents were encouraged to leave their ideas, suggestions, and comments on sticky notes stuck to the architectural drawings for both options.
Many of the comments called for “more” washrooms, others suggested the referee space was too big.
For the second option, some comments recommended moving the concession space to the heated area adjacent to the community room.
The architect hired for the project, Shane Laptiste, said he worked with town staff to design spaces that reflected what information was gathered in a stakeholder meeting at the beginning of the design process.
Collver said the town extended an invitation to all the groups using Fisher Field for programming, and only the Collingwood United Soccer Club attended the stakeholder's meeting. Since then, representatives from Georgian Bay Titans Rugby and Collingwood Collegiate Institute have provided the town with input and comments.
The soccer club committed up to $80,000 for the project.
Based on an average attendance of 300 people and athletes for regular soccer games or other sports events on the field, the Ontario Building Code recommends four washrooms. Currently, there are three portable washrooms at Fisher Field.
Collver explained in a previous staff report, there may be higher attendance for weekend tournaments, but in those cases, portable washrooms can be brought in to accommodate the added crowds.
Laptiste said additional washrooms could cost up to $50,000 depending on a variety of factors.
Currently, with four washrooms included, Laptiste said it was the most effective use of space to make them single units with their own toilet and sink. If the town wanted to include six washrooms, it might make more sense to have two larger washrooms with individual stalls.
According to Collver, the town will be using the information received at the public session to re-work the design where necessary, and it will be up to Laptiste to re-draw the building.
“We had a great turnout,” said Collver of the open house. “We’ll pull information from all the pieces and have a conversation with Shane [Laptiste] about the added work.”
In addition to the soccer club’s $80,000 donation, the town will use $560,918 in development charges and $270,072 from reserves for the $911,000 project budget. Collingwood council approved $250,000 in the 2019 budget to begin design and planning for the change room/washroom facility.
Collver said a large portion of the cost to build the Fisher Field change room building is in bringing services to the site. There is water, but there is currently no hydro service to the site, and no wastewater service. The town will have to build a septic system on-site to accommodate the washroom facilities.
Collver and his staff will bring back a revised proposal to council. Once approved, he said the town can put out a request for proposals to begin construction in the spring.
There is no date set for when the province will be announcing the successful applicants of the infrastructure grants.
